Description: A study of the legal, rational, theoretical, and biblical arguments made by the Loyalist clergy opposed to the American Revolution.
Brief description: Gregg L. Frazer is professor of history and political studies and Dean of the School of Humanities at the Master's University. He is the author of The Religious Beliefs of America's Founders: Reason, Revelation, and Revolution, also from Kansas.
Review Quotes:
"God against the Revolution is a well-researched account of the published writings of Protestant Christian ministers who opposed the American Revolution. Frazer helpfully organizes the arguments of clerical Loyalists into five pertinent categories: arguments from Scripture, from reason, from law, from the contemporary situation, and in response to the actions of colonial patriots who promoted the revolution. The book argues persuasively that Loyalist appeals to these various authorities and in response to contemporary developments proceeded from learned, thoughtful, and morally upright spokesmen whose voices now deserve the hearing they were for the most part denied two centuries ago."--Mark Noll, author of In the Beginning Was the Word: The Bible in American Public Life, 1492-1783
"Because history is often a tale told by the winners, there have been many studies of Patriot clergymen who preached a blend of Protestantism and Whig republicanism to support the revolutionary cause. There have been far fewer examinations of how they were answered from Loyalist pulpits. Frazer's study offers the fullest and most systematic analysis of the Loyalist clergymen's biblical, theoretical, legal, and rational arguments against the American rebellion. It is an important contribution to the religious and intellectual history of the revolutionary era."--Christopher Grasso, professor of history, College of William and Mary